Generally, the flavour of a product is mainly generated through single ingredients representing Middle-notes (non-volatiles, such as body-givers, hydrolysates, yeast extracts, peptides, organic acids, phosphates, lipids, and so on) and Top-notes (volatiles, such as character impact compounds, e.g. roasty chicken aroma).
Most food forms use Top-notes that are often purchased from flavour houses to deliver authentic signature aromas and tonalities. However, using Top-notes results in several disadvantages as follows: Top-notes consist mainly of volatiles and therefore lack taste, depth, and body. To complete taste, flavour, depth, and body of the product, different items are needed in formulation which creates handling complexity at production sites.
Additionally, the use of purchased Top-notes is also commercially disadvantageous in that it makes it difficult to differentiate products from different producers.
There have not yet been natural bases which incorporate the combination of Top-notes and Middle-notes generated through biotransformation and thermal processing steps.
Recent studies have focused on this issue.
JP 2005000157 provides a fermented seasoning by using onion as a main raw material. This fermented seasoning is obtained by heat-treating vegetables containing onion, then adding malted cereals, common salt, and yeast to the vegetables, and further fermenting and ageing the vegetables. This invention does not use any precursors than onions and is not involving any thermal treatment to create specific signature flavors. This is quite like a process for the preparation of pickles or sour chili.
JP 2003259835 produces a plant material having an improved additional value by fermenting the plant material with micro-organisms such as lactic bacteria and yeasts, and also produces a useful food, cosmetic or the like from the product. This invention is as well fermentation with micro-organisms to provide longer shelf life stability and release ingredients from the plant cells, which can be used in skin care or food, but no signature flavour is produced.
The process of EP 0490794 includes separation of micro-organisms/harmful substances from fermentation reactions, and produces salty and/or grilled and/or roasted flavours. The method of the invention has no separation step, because the whole fermented paste is edible and can be consumed as such.
It would be advantageous to have a new base generating Middle-notes with Top-notes in one single ingredient. This base reduces the need to add single ingredients to the recipes, and make the producing process operable.
In addition, this base retains naturally authentic signature flavours increasing the independence from flavour houses, the brand recognition through more elaborated flavour tonality and differentiation of products from different suppliers. The new base opens the possibility to communicate naturalness and nutritional aspects to customers.